isithalal.food · Recipes

Lahori chicken

Chet Sharma's Lahori chicken with Halal chicken: breasts marinated twice in yogurt, ginger, garlic, mustard oil and garam masala, charred on the barbecue and served with a cashew and yogurt whey sauce and kebab masala butter.

Pakistani · Main · Moderate · 4 plates · 780 min

Each method follows published technique for the dish, and every Halal substitution is checked against the ingredient pages we cite. Photographs come from our ingredient library rather than the finished dish.

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Why Halal checks matter here

The dish is 4 chicken breasts, which are Halal only from Halal-slaughtered birds, marinated in a kilo of live yogurt.

Halal-critical ingredients

• Chicken breasts: Chicken is a Halal bird, but slaughter decides, and chicken without a Halal mark doesn't say how the bird was slaughtered. Buy the chicken from a Halal butcher or in a certified pack. See Chicken.
• Live yogurt: Plain yogurt is milk fermented with cultures, but gelatin turns up in set, low-fat and dessert yogurts. Choose a yogurt with no gelatin on the label. See Yogurt.

Ingredients

Yogurt

• 1 kg live cultured plain yogurt, gelatin-free

First marinade

• 4 Halal skinless boneless chicken breasts (about 150 g each)
• 2 tbsp garlic paste
• 3 tbsp ginger paste
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt

Lahori marinade

• 30 g garam masala
• 10 g garlic paste
• 20 g ginger paste
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp mustard oil
• 250 g strained yogurt (from above)
• 50 g whipping cream

Kebab masala butter

• 10 g dried fenugreek leaves, lightly toasted
• 1 g dried mint
• 2 g black salt
• 9 g chaat masala
• 2 g green mango powder
• 2 g Kashmiri chilli powder
• 2 g garam masala
• 200 g salted butter, plus melted butter or ghee for basting

Yogurt whey sauce

• 600 g yogurt whey (from above)
• 300 g whipping cream
• 60 g cashew nuts, roasted until light golden
• 5 cardamom pods, crushed
• 50 g fresh root ginger, crushed to a paste, plus 1 tsp finely chopped
• 1 tsp coriander stalks, finely chopped
• 1 tsp green chillies, finely chopped
• to taste salt

Method

1. Strain the yogurt. Line a sieve with a few layers of kitchen paper, pour in the yogurt and set it over a bowl. Leave in the fridge overnight, then keep both the strained yogurt and the whey.
2. First marinade. Mix the first-marinade ingredients, rub them evenly over the chicken and leave at room temperature for 10 minutes.
3. Lahori marinade. Mix the Lahori marinade ingredients and rub them evenly over the chicken. Marinate in the fridge for up to 4 hours.
4. Make the kebab masala. Grind the fenugreek, mint and black salt to a coarse powder, then mix in the remaining spices. Set aside in an airtight container, with the butter.
5. Make the whey sauce. Bring the whey, cream, cashews, cardamom and crushed ginger to a rapid boil and cook over a high heat for about 5 minutes, until the cashews mash easily. Remove the cardamom, then blend for 5 minutes at the highest speed, adding hot water if needed until it is the thickness of double cream. Season with salt and set aside.
6. Barbecue the chicken. Light the barbecue in good time. Skewer the chicken and cook it skin-side up for 5 to 7 minutes, until the marinade is charred to a speckled deep brown. Turn, baste with a little ghee or melted butter and cook for 5 to 7 minutes more. You can also cook it under a grill on maximum, turning halfway, until well charred.
7. Check and rest. Check the thickest part reads at least 70C on a meat thermometer. Baste again, rest in a warm place for a few minutes, then cut each breast into three or four slices.
8. Finish and serve. Reheat the whey sauce and add the chopped ginger, coriander stalks and green chilli. Melt the butter, take it off the heat and stir in the kebab masala. Put the chicken on warm plates, pour over the whey sauce and finish with a couple of generous spoonfuls of the kebab masala butter. Serve straight away.

Allergens

milk (yogurt, cream, butter), tree nuts (cashews), mustard (mustard oil)

How this recipe was researched

Method adapted from BBC Food's 'Lahori chicken' by Chet Sharma, from Saturday Kitchen Best Bites, filed under Pakistani cuisine (serves 4; prepare overnight, cook 10 to 30 minutes. Yogurt: 1 kg live cultured plain yogurt strained overnight in the fridge through kitchen paper, keeping both the strained yogurt and the whey. First marinade: 2 tbsp garlic paste, 3 tbsp ginger paste, 3 tbsp lemon juice and 1 tsp salt rubbed over 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts (150 g each) for 10 minutes at room temperature. Lahori marinade: 30 g garam masala, 10 g garlic paste, 20 g ginger paste, 1 tbsp salt, 2 tbsp mustard oil, 250 g of the strained yogurt and 50 g whipping cream, up to 4 hours in the fridge. Kebab masala: 10 g toasted dried fenugreek leaves, 1 g dried mint and 2 g black salt ground coarse, mixed with 9 g chaat masala, 2 g each green mango powder, Kashmiri chilli powder and garam masala; 200 g salted butter melted with it to finish. Whey sauce: 600 g of the whey, 300 g whipping cream, 60 g roasted cashews, 5 crushed cardamom pods and 50 g crushed ginger boiled about 5 minutes, cardamom removed, blended 5 minutes to double-cream thickness and salted; finished with chopped ginger, coriander stalks and green chilli. The chicken barbecued skin-side up 5 to 7 minutes until charred, turned, basted with ghee or butter and cooked 5 to 7 minutes more (or grilled), to at least 70C, rested and sliced). We specified Halal chicken and a gelatin-free live yogurt; the published steps are followed in order. BBC Food gives no skill level; we rate it moderate. The source lists preparation as 'overnight' and cooking as 10 to 30 minutes; we use 30 minutes for each and count the overnight straining (the source's 12 hours) as rest. Timings follow the published technique rather than a kitchen test.

Photograph from our ingredient library: grilled meat skewers, not the finished dish from this recipe.